


Perpetual Motion

by idyll



Series: Parkour [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-01
Updated: 2007-07-01
Packaged: 2017-10-07 10:29:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idyll/pseuds/idyll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's all about forward momentum.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perpetual Motion

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a post amand_r made which got me thinking about Parkour in relation to SGA and Atlantis itself. The Wikipedia entry on Parkour is [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour), and a YouTube vid is [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEbYtOEftc0)

The first time John saw Ronon vault over a catwalk railing without pause it was a month after Ronon came to the city and he thinks he had a series of small heart attacks. When Ronon reappeared mere seconds later, two levels of grates down and to the right, still moving with a feral sort of grace, he almost passed out with relief.

*

Technically, it's not Parkour. The moves are Ronon's own, and they weren't purposefully designed and created, but rather evolved naturally during years of literal Running. The basic underlying principles are the same, though: it's about constant forward momentum, the refusal to see obstacles as such, and the ability to always find an escape route.

*

It's only when Ronon's feeling particularly restless that he retreats to the areas of the city deemed "uninhabitable but safe" and traverses broken catwalks, piles of debris, stacks of abandoned furniture and the jungle of ten thousand year old dead plants.

John finds it comforting to watch and Ronon doesn't seem to mind him doing so, and afterwards they always go to the nearest balcony and stay there until John's radio inevitably crackles to life.

*

There are occasions on which Ronon's fluidity is shot to shit, and John watches only until he can't stand the awkward, jerking momentum that sends Ronon slamming into walls or crashing to the floor, graceless and bumbling.

The first time was after John was infected with the retrovirus. The most memorable was after Ronon was implanted with another tracker and dumped on Sateda.

*

John gets the copy of _Banlieue 13_ from a French biologist, one of the more recent arrivals to the city, who seems confused that he would want it when it's not subtitled or dubbed and he doesn't understand the language.

John's only interested in the Parkour scenes, but when he watches it he finds he doesn't need to know what the characters are saying because he understands their anger, resentment and entrapment; their helplessness, desperation and fear. He understands, too, the allure of constant forward momentum, which takes them along the sides of buildings, over balconies and across rooftops.

He gives it to Ronon, who also doesn't seem to need to understand the language to appreciate it.

*

Not long after that, Ronon starts eyeing the sides of the buildings whenever they're on a balcony, and John predicts another series of small heart attacks in his near future.

*

After Kolya and the Wraith, John takes Ronon down into the guts of the city, where the spires begin and where the city foundation is like a series of Escher-esque scaffoldings that stretch and entangle for miles. They stay down there for hours and Ronon surges forwardforwardalwaysforward, effortless and seamless, never trapped and never without options, movingmovingalwaysmoving like perpetual motion, like freedom, like flying.

John watches and breathes.

.End


End file.
